News

Sunday 29 November, 1130-1230H – Channel 10 Never have stress and burn-out been more relevant topics than during 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world. The first presentation in this four-part session, on burnout, will be given by Professor Francis Bonnet – Tenon/St Antoine University Hospitals, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France and former President of the French Anaesthesia Society (SFAR). “Burnout is a serious problem with an increased incidence among healt...

Sunday 29 November, 1130-1230H, Channel 1 It appears that children have been spared the worst of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with cases of serious disease very low and deaths extremely rare. However, research continues into the effects on children, especially their involvement in chains of transmission. In the first of this three-part session on COVID-19 in children, Dr Nicola Disma, (Chair of Research & Innovation Unit at the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia, Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Ge...

Abstract 4863 – Dr L Freitas and colleagues Doctors have reported a highly unusual case of a right-handed patient performing unconscious ‘mirror-writing’ with her left hand while in the midst of having epileptic seizures in the emergency room. The strange case report is presented a this year’s Euroanaesthesia by Dr Laura Freitas and Dr Sofia R. de Valdoleiros, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Portugal, and colleagues. Mirror writing is the script which runs in the opposite dire...

  Sunday 29 November, 1130-1230H, Channel 5 The pro-con debates are one of the most popular slots on the annual Euroanaesthesia programme, and in this debate at Sunday lunchtime, two experts are asked: is technology the final answer for perioperative patient safety? “Let’s face it, despite all efforts we have been making since the publication of the book ‘To err is human’, 20 years ago, the human part of the patient safety equation has been the less reliable,” says Dr Daniel Arna...

  Sunday 29 November, 1000-1100H, Channel 8 This session draws on the experiences of several colleagues with the aim of maximising learning, increasing exposure to various situations to improve self-confidence, and to make best use of existing support systems to advance. In the opening talk, “Things to do to shine in your residency”, Dr Sabine Nabecker (Clinical Fellow for Education and Simulation in Anesthesia, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada) will share her insig...

Honorary member 2020: Prof Andreas Hoeft Note from ESAIC Board of Directors and Staff: we must sadly inform you that Professor Hoeft passed away on November 24, just days before our congress. We pay our sincerest condolences to Prof Hoeft’s family. This interview was conducted by Professor Hoeft in the weeks leading up to the congress, and he asked that it be published after his passing. As the interview shows, he has made a huge contribution to ESAIC and its predecessor organisation the ES...

When ESAIC’s new CEO Cathy Weynants took charge of the society on January 1, 2020, taking over from Marc Gheeraert, it was impossible to predict the rollercoaster year that lay ahead. Here Cathy tells us about her career, aspirations for ESAIC, and the challenges of managing the organisation mostly remotely after the coronavirus pandemic tightened its deadly grip on Belgium and the world.   Q: Welcome to Euroanaesthesia 2020 Cathy – your first in charge. How are you feeling about the s...

The new president of the newly renamed European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), Prof Kai Zacharowski, warmly welcomes all delegates to this online version of Euroanaesthesia 2020, being held much later this year after COVID-19 caused the postponement of our original meeting in Barcelona. Kai is Director of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine & Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany, and is an intensive care specialist. Here, he tal...

Industry-sponsored session Sunday 29 November, 1300H-1400H CET One of the talks in this special symposium during Sunday’s Euroanaesthesia program covers the unmet need in the treatment of direct FXa inhibitor-associated critical bleeding and will be presented by Professor Marc Maegele,  a trauma surgeon and intensive/emergency care specialist based at the Cologne-Merheim Medical Center, Cologne, Germany. He will explain how the recent development of crucial antidotes to these drugs, andexan...

Symposium organised by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) Saturday 28 November, 1330-1430H, Channel 9   This first talk in this three-part session on “burnout and depression of healthcare providers during COVID-19: diagnosis and approach” is by Dr Miodrag Milenovic, University of Belgrade, and Clinical Center of Serbia, Emergency Center, Belgrade, Serbia. “The anaesthesiology profession is a highly stressful medical speciality. With the deadly, contagious C...